20th Century Fox’s latest movie Ice Age 2: The Meltdown has made it big time at the box office. Vivendi Universal Games was given the task of following that success, or in NZ’s case preceding it, with the video game.
Now most games that are based on movies are generally huge flops (with few exceptions), especially the kids games which seem to rely solely on box office popularity to get the little tikes pouring their hearts out to unwitting parents, grandparents or anyone else willing to listen. Fortunately in this title we can breath a collective sigh of relief for Vivendi have risen to the challenge and put together a rather marvelous little family game. I use the word family as I certainly had as much fun as the kids did.
The game loosely follows the movie plot, where you for the most part play as the lovable yet extremely unlucky sabre-toothed squirrel Scrat. He’s the one who never quite succeeds in retrieving a single acorn throughout all his movie exploits. Given that Scrat is such a neat character (and my personal favourite) there was no disappointment at the main movie characters taking a back role in which they only provide a little guidance here or there (you do get the odd chance to play Diego and Sid during a couple of mini-games). In fact I feel that choosing Scrat was the perfect opportunity to tell a slightly different tale from that of the movie. Scrat’s exploits in search of the incredibly rare Golden Acorn are what legends are made of.
Now to the game itself; Scrat must follow/find a trail of nuts, in his search for the ultimate edible treat. Using very simple controls he can jump, climb, slide, swim dig, sniff and fight through various prehistoric scenes, as seen in the movie. There are plenty of hints for completing each required task before proceeding to the next level. But what makes the game so good is that it has the same lovable humour as is found in the movie. You can’t help but get caught up in the story, itching to find out what happens next or who you will meet. The scenes are beautifully drawn, bright and colourful with great attention to detail. Scrat is a joy to control, his little jumps or bounding strides just have you laughing to the end, and the sound effects are just the icing on the cake; his grunts, groans, whimpers or triumphant cries just keep you smiling.
As mentioned, the game follows the movie in that the ice age is coming to a very watery end. However Scrat couldn’t care less about the impending doom – he is solely concerned with gathering food, often resulting in utter disaster. There are various cut-scenes and snippets from the movie to embellish Scrat’s endeavours. Of course he will help out if there is a delicious morsel in the offering, and ultimately assist in bringing the story to its climactic end.
Throughout the game there are opportunities to play various mini-games such as Penguin bowling, ice-sliding, statues, whack-a-possum, and monkey shooting. These mini-games are cool; in fact my biggest disappointment is that you don’t get the chance to play them again. After finishing, I was hoping that an un-lockable option would become available in which you could replay any of the mini-games and perhaps a couple of new ones, however it was not to be. They could also have slipped in some multi-player options at that point, oh well maybe next time.
So why is this game any better than most other movie conversions? Well Eurocom (the developers) have succeeded in a few very important areas. Firstly, the main character is just so damn lovable. How can you not want this little fella to triumph given his stupendous and yes often insane efforts in getting that accursed acorn? You have to give it to him, he just doesn’t give up. Secondly the gameplay is very good. It’s simple yet very effective, the animation is well done and the sound effects are a treat. Lastly and most importantly, it is fun; yes that important ingredient which is often lost in the semantics of other games, especially the kids ones. This game had a target audience of the young or young at heart and got a bulls-eye. The littlies may need some adult or teen guidance but generally 8+ will have no great difficulty solving the puzzles to reap maximum enjoyment from this title. Well done.
By Hurricaning – gamers.co.nz
